To Those Who Wait
by Elerael
Summary: Now she was wondering if she had even been stood up at all.


She deeply regretted not bringing a coat.

_I don't need one, _she had thought. _I'll be in a toasty restaurant. What good is a coat?_ Oh, how wrong she was.

She had been standing outside for almost an hour. The jerk at the front desk wouldn't let her in because the reservation wasn't under her name, and now she had to wait outside in the cold.

For an hour.

She should be inside. Warm, full, cozy, enjoying the evening with handsome company and flirting shamelessly while sipping on a fruity cocktail she didn't pay for. After all, she didn't put on this tiny, black monkey suit for nothing. That's how the evening SHOULD be going. But it wasn't.

She studied every face as it passed, hoping beyond hope maybe there was a misunderstanding, maybe he got held hostage by the mob for an hour and they let him go and he was on his way now, maybe he _hadn't _stood her up. She didn't see any familiar faces, and her embarassment and frustration deepened with every sidelong glance from passersby.

She looked down at her black pumps and softly kicked a pebble into the street. _This is so stupid_, she thought to herself. Her made-up face twisted into a sneer. _I should just leave and maybe if he shows up he'll stand around for an hour too. Jerk._

She sighed in resignation. She couldn't feel her face, or her fingers, and she wished she couldn't feel her toes anymore. She had waited as long as she was willing. Hoisting her purse higher onto her shoulder, she turned and started to walk back to her apartment when she thought she heard her name.

"Tenten?"

She turned back around with a smile on her face, and her face quickly fell. She had expected to see a head of bright blonde hair and bright blue eyes, but was instead welcomed with a mop of spiked hair as deep as onyx, and murky dark irises. "Oh. Uchiha-san, it's just you."

The man approaching her stopped suddenly. "Ouch." He shook his head with a chuckle. "That stings. Sorry to disappoint. I almost didn't even recognize you."

"I didn't mean it that way," she rushed, trying to cover her tracks. "You just weren't who I was hoping to see, that's all."

"And who were you expecting to see, if I might ask?" The man's dark eyebrows rose in curiosity. He shoved his hands into his pockets and tilted his head to the side. She sighed.

"Uhh...I, uh, had a date. With someone. But I guess they got held up somewhere." She looked down at the ground to avoid looking at her companion, too embarrasses to make eye contact. "I decided I would just call it a night and go home." She sighed again, feeling pathetic for the millionth time that evening.

"Ah," he said in understanding, as if everything in the world suddenly made sense to him. "You got stood up."

She huffed in indignation, crossing her arms over her chest. "No, I most certainly did not get stood up."

"Hmm," the man mused, a small smirk adorning his face. "Well then, I guess if you didn't get stood up, it would be wrong of me to ask for the honor of your presence at dinner tonight..." His voice trailed off, and he turned his face downward to hide his growing smile.

"You're right," she agreed, nodding her head. "That would break some sort of guy code, I'm sure."

She rubbed her hands over her arms to try to spark some warmth, to no avail. Sensing her trouble, the young Uchiha quickly took off his overcoat and placed it gently around her small shoulders, earning a shy 'thank you'. She smelled like lilacs, and something else he couldn't name. It intrigued him. "It would be worth it, though," he shot back coyly.

"And why is that, sir?" she asked. The residual warmth of his coat was comforting, making her embarassment long forgotten.

"Oh, you know..."

"No, no I don't," she chuckled. "Please enlighten me, if you'd be so kind."

He fidgeted with the sleeves of his dress shirt, tugging at the hem of the dark material and playing with the buttons almost nervously. "Well, for starters, you look absolutely stunning tonight, I got all dressed up with no place to go, and it would be a shame for all that to go to waste, now wouldn't it?"

Her rosy mouth opened slightly, and she quickly slammed it shut, grasping for words. Did Uchiha Sasuke just..? No...nope. Nope. "I...uh...thank you, Sasuke. That's very kind of you to say...I think."

He laughed, which she found to be a surprisingly pleasant sound. It was bright, and loud, which seemed to be in direct opposition with the general assumption of his character. "You're very welcome, Tenten." He rotated his body so that he was now to her right, instead of in front of her, and offered his hand to her. "Now, my lady, your banquet awaits."

She accepted his hand, placing hers gently atop his, returning his laugh with one of her own. "How can I say no to such a perfect gentleman?" She smiled brightly for the first time that evening. She followed his lead to the restaurant she had been waiting in front of for so long, about to ask his intentions when he approached the maite d' and gave his name, party of two.

He smiled at the puzzled look on her face, and followed the server to their table in the corner of the dimly lit dining room, holding tightly to her hand in his.

Once they were seated, she unleashed her questions upon him. "You had a reserevation? I thought you said you had nothing to do?" She leaned forward in her seat, trying to bore into her date with stare, urging him to tell her the truth.

"Maybe I did, and maybe I didn't, respectively," he said quietly, a small grin turning up one corner of his mouth.

She sat back in her chair ungracefully with a small 'thud', and pouted her bottom lip slightly in dissatisfaction. "Well, that's not even an answer."

The man laughed, surprising her once more with it's musical lilt. A slightly mischevious look dawned upon his admittedly dashing face, and she became a bit wary of what he was about to say, whatever it was. "Maybe, just maybe, I had hoped to run into someone tonight, and just came prepared."

Now she was wondering if she had even been stood up at all.

Damn that Naruto.


End file.
